Teachers not famous enough

18-03-11

MOST British teachers are not famous enough to be able to inspire their pupils, according to a new report.

'Hands up who's heard of me'

As the audience somehow increased for Jamie Oliver’s Teaching is Really Easy, government-commissioned research by the Institute for Studies found that around 0% of secondary school teachers were household names.

Professor Henry Brubaker said: “Schools need to accept that we live in an age where if you haven’t at least been on an ITV2 panel show about penises you aren’t worth listening to.

“Although a few teachers had achieved some limited notoriety – like geography master Stephen Malley in Kent who got a fifth former pregnant and ended up sleeping in the CDT block, or science teacher Tom Logan who is rumoured to have been a weightlifter despite clearly having a draggy leg – pretty much none exhibited a television-recognised talent.

“The nearest we found was Mr John Bailey, deputy head of a school in Nantwich, who started the World Worm Charming Championships. But that was in 1980.”

He added: “Teachers need to spend less time marking and more on raising their media profiles.

“One time-efficient way of achieving this might be to arrange school trips to war zones, where teachers would be able to film each other in heroic shootouts when the battered coach is surrounded by hostile militia.”

Teacher Nikki Hollis said: “If doing lots of paperwork was a passport to fame, I would be Elizabeth Fucking Taylor.

“As it stands, I will never be an inspirational figure like Jamie Oliver who is so brilliant at making food hot, or that man Starkey who does history and is like a villainous squirrel from Wind in the Willows.